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Mitigating Circumstances

During your time with us, you may experience situations that you did not expect that had a significant negative impact on your work. You can apply for mitigating circumstances for this to be taken into account.

This is separate to requests for extensions for work – normally if you have successfully applied for an extension then you are unlikely to receive mitigating circumstances for the same piece of work.

Mitigating circumstances are:

  • Situations that you could not have predicted and had no control over (e.g. serious illness, death of someone close, being the victim of a crime, family difficulties and unforeseen financial hardship)
  • Situations with a significant impact on your ability to undertake assessments/examinations which are independently evidenced in a timely fashion; (e.g.doctor’s note during illness showing duration and level of negative impact)
  • Situations that are acute or short term, the timing of which are relevant to the impact on your study (normally within three weeks of the relevant assessment event or deadline)

To qualify it must be:

  • Significant (they have more than a minor impact on you)
  • Unexpected (you must have had no prior knowledge of the event)
  • Unpreventable (there was no reasonable steps you could have taken to prevent the event)
  • Relevant (you must be able to link the event, and its impact on the work that you are claiming for)
  • Corroborated (there must be evidence to support your claim)

If you are in any doubt about whether your situation is eligible as a mitigating circumstance you should consult either the Senior Tutor (Cleo Tilley C dot Tilley dot 1 at warwick dot ac dot uk) or your Course Director.

Information provided by you is sensitive and will be treated confidentially and in line with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

You may wish to speak to staff outside of the department, e.g. Wellbeing Support Services.

To ensure fairness to all students, it is your responsibility to fully report all relevant mitigating circumstances, on Tabula in the Personal Circumstances section of your profile.

You must submit any mitigating circumstances as soon as possible. They must be received before Wednesday 17th June 2020.

Consequently, mitigation where a student did not wish to raise their issues until they received their results, will not normally be considered or accepted.

PLEASE NOTE: A successful mitigating circumstance case does not excuse you from an assessment or enable you to achieve higher marks. If successful there are a number of outcomes that the mitigating circumstances board might recommend, depending on the circumstances. For example, it may lead to a resit opportunity.

Further information can be found in the University’s Mitigating Circumstances Student Handbook.

Please speak with your Personal Tutor or the Senior Tutor for further support and guidance.